Once a monk was traveling, and with him there were other monks and there was a river flowing. That monk saw that a lady was standing on the other side. She wanted to cross the river, but she couldn’t because the water was very deep. So, out of compassion that monk went to the lady and said, “Can I help you?” The lady said, “Yes, I want to cross the river. Please lift me up.”
The monk knew that it was forbidden for a monk to touch a woman but out of compassion he lifted the lady, he picked her up, he crossed the river and he put her on the other side. All the other brothers were watching. They were horrified that this monk had touched a lady. They went to the monastery and started complaining. They told their head priest that this man must be excommunicated because what he has done has broken the law. The law was that a monk should not touch a woman.
So, the head priest called everybody. He summoned all the priests. He told the monk, “There is a complaint against you. I have heard that you have touched a woman.” He said, “Yes, I have made a mistake, but these people have also made a mistake and that is greater than my mistake.” The head priest said, “Okay, I understand about your mistake, but what is the greater mistake that these people have committed?”
And that monk said, “I made a mistake. I only lifted that woman and put her on the other side. That was my mistake. But greater than my mistake is these people’s mistake because they have still lifted that lady in their mind and have brought her here.”
Moral: We have to understand that many people commit more crimes in their mind than they commit in reality. And we have so many; we do so many crimes in our mind with the result that the mind is very, very unhappy.
Mahavatar Babaji to Lahiri Mahasaya: “The millions who are encumbered by family ties and heavy worldly duties will take new heart from you, a householder like themselves….A sweet new breath of divine hope will penetrate the arid hearts of worldly men. From your balanced life, they will understand that liberation is dependent on inner, rather than outer, renunciations.”
—Sri Sri Mahavatar Babaji, in “Autobiography of a Yogi”
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From: Vishal – a pure soul like You.
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